St. Patrick and the Pagans
Celebrating a Christian who fearlessly confessed "the strong name of the Trinity"
I love St. Patrick’s Day. For me, it started—I’m a little ashamed to admit this— when I ate corned beef and cabbage for the first time. What a magnificent combination! I found a recipe for Irish Soda Bread, and now that’s a traditional menu item here, too, on March 17. I like to think that my Welsh heritage makes me feel particularly chummy with the Irish. Well, that and my freckles (trickled down from my red-headed grandma) and my occasionally volcanic temper. Cultural stereotypes can be so fallibly endearing!
As a Christian, I knew that Patrick’s historical legacy involved so much more than a once-a-year feasting or drinking excuse. In this awesome history over at Classical Wisdom, we learn that
[Patrick’s] original name was Magonus Saccatus Patricius, and he was born in the 4th or 5th century AD in Roman Britain. His family was a member of the Romanized elite; his father may have been a decurion, or possibly a priest, and his mother was allegedly a niece of the Christian saint, Martin of Tours. Patrick was well-educated for his time, and there are two surviving Latin works attributed to him: the Confessio (Declaration) and the Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus.
According to the Confessio, he was abducted by Irish pirates when he was 16. He was taken to Armagh, now in Northern Ireland, and was made to herd animals. For six years he lived alone in the valley and mountains, and suffered all kinds of deprivations and cruelties. In the wilderness his faith grew, and one night he heard a voice urging him to escape. He made his way to what is now Wexford, and persuaded a ship’s captain to take him back to Britain. Patrick eventually made his way back to his family, who were astonished that he survived his ordeal.
No kidding! So what did Patrick do after his death-defying experience? He had a dream—not like a daydream or a self-centered vision of his desires, but a while-he-was-sleeping dream of a man he had known in Ireland who pleaded with him to convert the Irish people to Christianity. So after years of study, Patrick went back to the land of his captivity, an island suffused with earthy, pagan cultures.
Celtic mythology in the fourth century was filled with stories of vivid, violent gods. The Tuatha Dé Danann were the most important race, thought to be supernatural invaders of Ireland. They were sometimes described as fallen angels or mortals with gifts of magic, but many references point to what was seen as their divinity.
Christians would recognize many of these descriptions as being similar to those of demons. Some of the most influential spiritual leaders in Ireland were the Druids, a kind of super influential pagan clergy, who wielded immense cultural and social power. Julius Caesar himself noted their religious control and its concomitant privileges; high-ranking Druids “were exempt from military service and from paying taxes, and had the power to excommunicate people from religious festivals, making them social outcasts.” This from the pen of one of the most powerful men in Rome! Anyone who can marginalize other people without fear of reprisal and not pay taxes is, shall we say, living the high life.
But not to according to Patrick, a devout Christian, who recognized the spiritual abyss of most of Ireland’s people. He was neither the first Christian nor the first preacher to try to reach its people, but he was renowned for his ability to explain Christianity clearly and unapologetically. As Ed Whelan in Classical Wisdom writes,
In particular, [Patrick] was able to reconcile the doctrine of the Trinity with the Celtic concept of a deity with a triple aspect. Patrick explained the complex theological concept of the Trinity (that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are separate entities yet also one) by using the three leaved shamrock. This is why today the shamrock is one of the national symbols of Ireland.
So Patrick used what were common cultural symbols to teach Christianity, from the shamrock to what’s known as the Celtic cross. Like Paul at the Athenian temple (Acts 17:16-34), he knew when to defer to his weaker brother and how to acknowledge possibility in pagan surroundings to help others know Christ.
We Lutherans really appreciate Patrick’s teachings on the Trinity as we sing in his famous hymn, known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate. “I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity.” Our God is the “Three in One and One in Three./ By whom all nature hath creation,/ Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:/ Praise to the Lord of my salvation,/ Salvation is of Christ the Lord.” Through our baptisms, Christ is written upon our hearts, literally on our breast. Only He can defeat death in the spiced tomb and “the demon snares of sin,” “all Satan’s spells and wiles, … false words of heresy,” and all sorts of other evils and temptations. There’s no compromise here.
With every passing year, I appreciate Patrick more. God put him in his particular circumstances for a reason. He does so with us, too. What does our pagan culture teach us and tempt us toward? What are the idols that beacon to us and to our neighbors? We may be far from the soil of Ireland, but we are not far away from paganism and its lies.
Jonathan Lange at Only Human, in “Never Again,” points out a key truth about lies.
There is no such thing as an insignificant and inconsequential lie. Whether the lie be about the origins of human life, the nature of men and women, the medical sciences or the distortion of current events, all lies have murderous consequences. Even those lies that seem to advance the ball for your “team” cost far more than anyone dares to anticipate.
The only safe path is to renounce the devil and all his lies. Test every claim. Take responsibility for learning the truth. Never go along to get along. Listen to dissenters. And when you discover deception, never again trust the liar.
Patrick taught the same thing to people who did not know the Truth. Even more, he taught Who the Truth, the only Truth, is. Erin go bragh means Ireland forever. And yes, may we enjoy Irish cultural heritage, including corned beef and cabbage, hopefully for a long, long time. But even more, may we cling to Christ, our only ultimate hope and life, forever.